Wednesday, 26 July 2017

Manchester quilting bee

I am sure most of you will have heard about the bombing that took place in Manchester at an Ariana Grande concert on may 22 this year. Such a tragedy 22 lives being lost and a lot more both children and adults badly injured.
The Manchester Sewing Bee decided to make quilts for the families of those who lost their lives and people were asked to make 5" hexagons and attach them to 6.5" squares. I made 16 and masses of people contributed and then on 15 th July Rachel came with another lady and brought quilt tops, blocks etc to be completed at out Leeds MQG meeting. The first quilt was finished by Liz who sandwiched the flimsy that had been made by a group in Chorlton, quilted it added the binding then passed it over to 2 of us who sat either side of a table and hand stitched the binding down.

First quilt

Good to see the first completed quilt. There were individual squares, hexagons needing to be added to squares, rows joined together and flimsies to be completed. Rachel had been given lots of backing fabrics, wadding etc and people had sent in bindings. Some of us took the flimsies home to complete and I did one just a wavy line through the seams as my quilting is not too good then bound it and had it completed in a day. There is an instagram page for Manchester quilting bee if you want to see more of what is happening, think a facebook one too but I am not on facebook

my completed quilt

I am not sure when the quilts will be collected our next meeting is 19 august maybe there will be more to do then.

Now back to making more for the epilepsy charity fund raiser which happens at the end of august.

I am also off to the Festival of Quilts at the NEC in Birmingham on 11 august have a ticket to hear Victoria Findlay Wolfe giving a talk and so looking forward to seeing her quilts and new book. 3 days I have at the show but have to get a bus 5.30am to catch my coach at 6.30 so a very early start.

35 comments:

Those quilts are awesome, and you're so good, ladies, to give away those quilts for charity. So bad people can do such things to children and adults going peacefully to a consert. I was thinking of going to Birmingham this year, so bad, we could have met there.

The quilts are stunning and it is great that your group and others make these quilts for a good cause.I wish I could come to Birmingham some day, please take lots of pictures so we all can see the beautiful quilts you will find there.KATRIN W.

It always warms my heart to see good and kind people come together and help mend the tragedy of horrific acts. Lovely quilts and Bless you dear for all your work. Enjoy your quilt how and speaker. Life is all too short so we must enjoy every minute...even those early starts. Hugs and Safe Travels...<3

Thanks for sharing this, Margaret. It's a good story - and we need all the good stories we can get. It's so important to respond with collective action and creativity. Your quilt looks great. Hope your trip goes smoothly and you have a lot of fun.

What a wonderful design for the quilts. I'll bet you are going to have plenty of them, too. You do such nice things for charity. I'm excited for you to go to the Birmingham show, which I've heard is quite a large one, and to have time with Ms Wolfe! That's fabulous! Enjoy every minute. Maybe you can sleep somewhat on the way there and home again!

You are doing great work Margaret, it's lovely to hear your progress and see two of the quilts. I'm not going to get to Birmingham, I thought I might but it hasn't worked out this year. I'm not going to mope about it though, I'm going to plan for next year and make it happen. It helps that my daughter is a short train ride from the NEC, saves on the accommodation costs and I can drag her along with me on one day.

The quilting project is for such a good cause- the first two quilts look lovely and I'm sure the rest of them will be too. Lucky you going to Birmingham, it sounds like you will have an inspiring time :-)

Beautiful quilts. It's nice to work on group project after a tragedy. It helped me after the Boston bombings to work on a large embroidery project Mending Boston http://bit.ly/2wFNYAx I had not done any handwork before, it was very calming...We worked in the alcove of The Old South Church then went in for an unrelated concert celebrating Wagner's birthday. http://bit.ly/2fqBZ6x

That's a fab quilt - well done for being so involved! That's the first I've heard of quilts for Manchester- so pleased someone is organising something! I'm missing FoQ this year - first year as a quilter that I'm working full time ☹️ Enjoy for both of us!!!!